Thirteen American academics and researchers contribute six chapters examining the connection between language acquisition and emergent literacy, and how this prepares children for later literacy development. Coverage includes an overview of emergent literacy for early childhood specialists, book sharing's importance in the development of meaning for children's emergent literacy and early oral language acquisition, the development of children's phonological awareness and its relationship to development in other areas of language, children's early writing and spelling development and their influence on early oral language acquisition, early oral language learning and story and expository discourse, and cultural and linguistic diversity and emergent literacy. For reading specialists, speech-language pathologists, early childhood educators, and graduate students in these fields. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)